Which statement about the relationship between homicide and murder is accurate?

Which statement about the relationship between homicide and murder is accurate?

• A. Homicide and murder are unrelated.
• B. Not all homicides are murders.
• C. All murders are homicides.
• D. Murder is never a homicide.

Answer: (C)

Homicide is the broad category for the killing of a person by another person. Murder is a specific kind of homicide that involves unlawful, intentional killing. Because murder is defined as a type of homicide, every murder is a homicide. This makes the statement accurate because it describes the inclusion relationship clearly: murders are included inside the larger group of homicides. There are other homicides (like those justified by self-defense or accidental deaths) that aren’t murders, which is why you’ll hear that not all homicides are murders. But the primary relationship—murder being a subset of homicide—is best captured by saying all murders are homicides.

Homicide is the broad category for the killing of a person by another person. Murder is a specific kind of homicide that involves unlawful, intentional killing. Because murder is defined as a type of homicide, every murder is a homicide. This makes the statement accurate because it describes the inclusion relationship clearly: murders are included inside the larger group of homicides. There are other homicides (like those justified by self-defense or accidental deaths) that aren’t murders, which is why you’ll hear that not all homicides are murders. But the primary relationship—murder being a subset of homicide—is best captured by saying all murders are homicides.